 The Times endorses an unusual idea being considered today by the L.A. Unified School Board: allowing assorted groups inside and outside the district to operate 50 newly built schools over the next four years. Yes, there are pitfalls to this idea, but it's still the most intriguing experiment to reinvent local education to come along in years.
The ongoing crisis in Honduras, meanwhile, is starting to look like it won't be resolved without some "superpower pressure" from the United States, The Times opines. It's time to impose sanctions on those behind the coup that ousted the country's rightful president, Manuel Zelaya, and take other actions aimed at restoring democracy. "Failure to return to constitutional order would send a signal to the rest of Latin America that once again political problems can be solved with an old-style coup."
And we celebrate the nomination of Regina Benjamin as surgeon general. This "angel-like" figure, known for her work bringing clinics to rural areas, rebuilding health centers devastated by Hurricane Katrina and leading medical associations, "has the potential to be one of the strongest voices in public health in decades."
On the Op-Ed page, columnist Jonah Goldberg raises an eyebrow over a recent comment in the New York Times from Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg:
'Frankly I had thought that at the time [Roe vs. Wade] was decided,' Ginsburg told her interviewer, Emily Bazelon, 'there was concern about population growth and particularly growth in populations that we don't want to have too many of.'
Goldberg lists other prominent abortion backers, including former Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes and Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger, who appeared to think that abortion was necessary to cull undesirable elements -- like the poor and minorities -- from the population. He'd like to see more questioning of such attitudes in the media.
Jesselyn Radack of the Government Accountability Project says the Obama administration is breaking its promise to bring transparency to government surveillance programs. The administration is reportedly proceeding with a Bush-era plan to use the National Security Agency to screen government computer traffic on private-sector networks, a program known as Einstein 3 that has no intrinsic security value -- but will allow spooks to read e-mail communication between the government and private citizens.
And Deborah Doctor of Disability Rights California challenges Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to document all the fraud he claims to have identified in the state's In-Home Supportive Services program, a quarter of whose funds he says are wasted. The governor not only hasn't proven the accuracy of that figure, he has proposed fixes that could well cost more than they would save.
 In today's pages: reform. Reform of the health care system, reform of immigration policy and reform of fire retardant laws. Let's start with health care.
The editorial board today takes a look at how to improve medical care while lowering costs in a reformed health care system, and suggests three ways to do so: invest in primary care, develop treatment standards for medical professionals and promote information technology that tracks patient care. One encouraging thing about healthcare reform, however, is that
improving the quality of care can help slow the debilitating increase
in costs. It's good for all. And although the changes required won't be
easy, they're essential to the crucial third piece of the healthcare
reform puzzle, which is providing coverage to all Americans.
The board is perturbed by the El Pueblo de Los Angeles historical landmark, and the businesses that are affiliated with it on Olvera Street. The site, which claims to be the location where Los Angeles was founded, has been costing the city money instead of paying for itself. The rents on the merchants' stalls along the back alley are much lower than market rate, and the board calls for the city to reset the rents and make this historical landmark cover its costs. On the op-ed side of the pages, health care again! Phil Lebhertz, director of the Foundation for Health Coverage Education, points out that many health care programs exist for lower-income folks, but many just don't know about it: If such a government health insurance option is implemented, will
people who are uninsured sign up for it? The question is valid because
one-third of the 47 million uninsured people in the United States --
that's 15 million people -- are eligible for government coverage plans
already in place but not signed up....
Perhaps a first step in fixing the current healthcare delivery system
is to create legislation that mandates an effective communication
system for any new program as well as the programs already in place.
And reform is again the word of the day, as Jeb Bush, Thomas F. McLarty III and Edward Alden
broach the issue of immigration policy and the outcome of a Council on Foreign Relations Task Force they recently headed. Encouraged by President Obama's call for change of the immigration system, the three politicians propose to make it easier for some illegal immigrants to gain citizenship, reward businesses that use programs such as E-Verify to check applicants' immigration status, and align immigration policy with America's competitive interests. Russell Long, vice president of Friends of the Earth, urges California to stop requiring that fire retardant chemicals be used on baby products. Long says the chemicals are not proven to be fire-proof, and instead could be dangerous to the infant's, and their parents', health: Making matters worse, California's law has meant that baby products are
often treated with the chemicals even in states that don't require such
treatment. To avoid manufacturing two separate lines, one for
California and another for other states, many manufacturers make their
products sold in other states to California standards.
Finally, columnist Gregory Rodriguez tries to find a link between the recession and the declining divorce rate. His conclusion? Our society has yet to find (or create) a marriage model that incorporates all of society's changes and the choices both men and women have: This fits right into the fact that we're divorcing less in hard times.
In the context of this recession, we have fewer choices, and fewer
choices means we're back to a good fit with the marriage model of old.
Still -- and a little paradoxically -- the fact that there are
untraditional marriages may also be helping husbands and wives
withstand some of the emotional and financial stress of economic hard
times. During the Depression, the ego blow to a man who lost his job
caused marital problems. Today, if a man loses his job -- and his wife
is the breadwinner -- it's less likely to create as much unhappiness.
Photo: U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden (C) speaks as Health and Human
Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius (L), and President and CEO of
Catholic Health Association of the United States (CHA) Carol Keehan (R)
listen as Biden makes an announcement on health care at the Eisenhower
Executive Office Building of the White House July 8, 2009 in
Washington, DC. Credit: Alex Wong / Getty Images
 It's been interesting to watch the slowly developing concerns about Ritalin and other stimulants used to help children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). After a few reports of sudden deaths among children taking the drugs, the Food and Drug Administration asked drug manufacturers in 2007 to include better warnings with the medications. Now a new study is out that might concern some parents, although it provides no real answers for them.
The study, funded by the FDA and National Institutues of Mental Health, looked at the files on 564 children and teenagers who had died suddenly, with no real explanation for their death. They compared those files with those of an equal number of youngsters who had died in auto accidents. The findings: 10 of those in the first group had been taking Ritalin (other medications were not widely available at the time), while only two of those in the control group had been.
It sounds frightening at first glance-- five times as many? But the children taking Ritalin made up a small portion of either group, and sudden unexplained death is itself an extremely rare occurrence among children and teens. There were other possible factors the researchers couldn't account for. For example, teenagers with ADHD are more likely to experiment with illegal drugs. Could it be that those drugs, rather than Ritalin, caused some or all of the deaths?
The study's conclusion: That there is an association between stimulant use and sudden unexplained death in use. NIMH's conclusion: It always pays to remember that correlation does not imply causality. Just because there was an association doesn't mean that one caused the other. NIMH calls for further studies as well as better screening for heart conditions among youth. And parents are left, as always, to make the best judgment they can on whether to use these daily medications.
Photo by Robert Bukaly/AP
Could healthcare reform be the next big drive-'em-to-the-polls wedge issue? Conservatives in some states think so -- witness the anti-Obamacare referendum that the Republican-controlled Arizona legislature recently approved. The measure, which will go on the ballot in November 2010, would change the state's constitution to declare that "A law or rule shall not compel, directly or indirectly, any person, employer or health care provider to participate in any health care system." Except if that law happens to be Medicare, Medicaid or workers compensation, all of which are exempted from the measure. According to the conservative Tenth Amendment Center, advocates of similar measures are working to get them on the ballot in at least five other states.
Sponsor Nancy Barto, a state House Republican from Phoenix, said the goal is to protect Arizonans from being forced into a "government run healthcare system." No such measure has ever gotten a hearing in the Arizona legislature, Barto acknowledged in an interview, but Congress is heading in that direction now with its proposals for an optional "public plan." She added that calling the public plan an "option" was misleading because "when government enters the field and starts competing, and starts making the rules for their competitors ... [it] will -- drive their competiors out of business."
The funny thing about the "Arizona Healthcare Freedom Act," though, is that the proposal was around before Barack Obama became president....
Read on »
 On the Op-Ed page today, Paul VanDevelder, author of "Savages and Scoundrels: The Untold Story of America's Road to Empire Through Indian Territory," discusses an impending ruling by U.S. District Judge James Redden in Oregon that may determine the fate of salmon in the Columbia and Snake rivers. VanDevelder argues that dam removal is the best option for the salmon's survival, but it's also the most politically turbulent:
The Columbia-Snake corridor is the salmon's only option for survival,
and Redden is probably their last hope. He is the one person in this
entire drama who is legally obligated to use science and the law to
protect the fish from extinction and from the whims of politicians. If
the law and science are unable to trump politics to save this fishery
-- a fishery that was the most productive in the world just two
generations ago -- how will we ever meet the towering challenges posed
by global climate change?
Read on »
 I'm not a doctor, and the guy who tried to revive Michael Jackson is. But it's hard to avoid having questions about how Dr. Conrad Murray went about administering CPR to the pop star.
Why did he perform the chest compressions while Jackson was still in bed rather than move him to a firm surface? On a bed, the victim is simply pressed deeper into the mattress. According to reports, Murray tried to overcome this by bracing Jackson's back with one hand, which left the doctor only one hand to do compressions. Usually, the rescuer uses two hands, interlocked, pressing down with the heel of the lower hand. It's hard work to get a compression deep enough.
Murray also, according to his lawyers, performed the technique for 25 minutes or so before having an ambulance called. But according to the CPR classes I've taken, the procedure seldom revives a patient; it's more a technique to keep blood flowing until an ambulance arrives. Rescuers also generally aren't supposed to try to do CPR for such a long period even if an ambulance isn't immediately forthcoming. They're supposed to show someone else how to do it as they do it, and have that person spell them for awhile. It's exhausting to give CPR properly, and studies show that rescuers, without noticing, start to let up on the speed or depth of the compressions after a few minutes.
It's early for anyone to be passing judgment on how things were handled in Jackson's particular situation, but it would be helpful to have some top experts come forward to comment on how people should handle CPR in an emergency. Given the phenomenal interest and concern in this case, doctors and public-health officials have been presented with a teachable moment that might be used to save other lives.
Photo: A July 2006 photo of Dr. Conrad Murray. Credit: AP Photo / Houston Chronicle
 On the Op-Ed page today, John P. Hannah, security adviser to Vice President Dick Cheney during President George W. Bush's second term, evaluates whether Iraq is ready for the looming withdrawal of U.S. troops from its cities. His conclusion is that President Obama is effectively giving up on Iraq before the job is done:
Under Obama, Bush's commitment to winning in Iraq has all but vanished.
Convinced from the start that the war was a mistake (a conviction
fortified by the Bush team's post-invasion bungling), Obama has for
years been the salesman in chief for a narrative of failure: Iraq is
seen as a colossal disaster -- a senseless distraction that drained
U.S. resources while alienating the rest of the world. While
recognizing a vague obligation to help Iraqis forge a better future,
Obama's bottom line comes through loud and clear: The war was a
strategic blunder, and the sooner the U.S. can wash its hands of it and
re-focus on our "real" priorities in the Middle East, the better.
While Hannah argues that Obama's focus in the Middle East has shifted to Iran and he'd rather be done with Iraq, isn't the pulling out of troops and the handing of power to a government we helped build part of getting the job done? Even Bush was not planning on staying in Iraq forever, but that's the track we've been on since the 2003 invasion. Retreating our troops so the Iraqi police can take over the security of Iraqi cities may be the right step to the conclusion for which Hannah is calling. Criminal Justice Professor Eric J. Williams writes to another aspect of the Bush administration's legacy: Guantanamo Bay. Williams specifically responds to the surprise expressed by many Republican politicians over a myriad of rural towns asking for the Gitmo detainees, as prisons have become an economic remedy for such towns that have lost staple industries. The two other Op-Eds today offer more hopeful ruminations.
Read on »
 The Times editorial board focuses on the failing healthcare system in the United States, urging Congress and all parties involved to start the reform process now before it's too late. Despite sharp disagreements over some of the proposed fixes, the board notes the broad consensus about three main problem areas: rising costs, incomplete coverage and questionable quality:
The cost, quality and coverage problems are intertwined. Healthcare providers pass along the expense
of caring for the uninsured and underinsured, raising costs for those
who have insurance. Insurers respond by raising prices, which leads
more employers and individuals to drop coverage. The low reimbursement
rates prompt physicians to move into more lucrative careers as
specialists, reducing the supply of the primary-care doctors who are
vital to timely, high-quality care. And the perverse financial
incentives in the system deter doctors and hospitals from aligning
their interests with those of their patients. After all, the healthcare
industry profits more from treating ailments than from preventing them.... The U.S. healthcare system isn't a failure. It's extraordinarily good
at some things, such as developing new treatments. But its
inefficiencies and gaps have created flaws so deep, the system cannot
be sustained for long. Not enough people are receiving the care they
need when they need it, and those who are pay too much for it. The
problems are getting bigger and more complex. The longer we wait to
solve them, the more intractable they will become. On the Op-Ed side of the fold, Steven Hill proposes several ways that California can approach a constitutional convention that will potentially remake the state into California, Version 2.0. The problem, he writes, is how to choose delegates. He concludes that random selection -- as done in Canada, among other countries -- may be the best and fairest option. Gregory Rodriguez discusses the danger of urban downsizing and the Obama administration's consideration of a plan to shrink deteriorating cities by bulldozing neighborhoods: The plan makes sense on some level, but it's disturbing on
another. Anyone who's driven by miles of empty lots in Detroit knows
that urban demolition does more than destroy blight. It also erases
history and what a city was. Traces of the past have always been
jumping-off places for the next chapter (think rehabbed Victorians or
sleek post-industrial lofts). And, of course, the back-to-nature plan
-- which could be used in cities such as Memphis, Baltimore,
Philadelphia and others -- is fundamentally an admission and may be an
assurance that these cities will never rise again.
And Susan R. Barry reflects on the beauty of a 3-D world as well as the potential benefits of 3-D movies in spotting visual defects in children. Photo: Democrats on the Senate Banking Committee hold a rally in Washington, D.C., for their healthcare overhaul bill on June 16. Credit: Robert
Giroux / Getty Images
 Move over, marijuana. A new study finds that adding ginger to food in the days surrounding chemotherapy treatments reduces nausea and vomiting.
My grandmother could have told them that. Ginger ale was her remedy for all abdominal ills. And ginger has been touted by the alternative-health community in recent years as well.
Will this wipe out the whole debate around use of that other herbal remedy for chemotherapy discomfort? It's hard to imagine "medical ginger clinics" having quite the same ring -- or popularity. Besides, ginger can't possibly do as much to stimulate the appetite.
Photograph of cannabis plant by Richard Pedroncelli / AP
 With today's visit to Jerusalem by Pope Benedict XVI, Rabbi Marvin Hier of the Simon Wiesenthal Center leads off the Op-Ed page with a look at past papal visits, with a smattering of missteps and snipes. Things are better today, Hier says:
On the 70th anniversary of the outbreak of World War II, Jews around the world need to acknowledge that the Catholic Church of 2009 is no longer the same institution it was under Pius XII. Jews and Catholics may have their differences, but Benedict XVI's pilgrimage to Jerusalem confirms that the Catholic Church, once a main source of anti-Semitism, is today an important voice in validating the Jewish people's right to fulfill a historic and spiritual destiny.
Author Arthur Allen walks through some of the known unknowns about the flu, swine and otherwise. And columnist Gregory Rodriguez ponders the role of Latinos as President Obama considers his Supreme Court choice.
On the editorial page, the ed board compares California to a gas-guzzler nearly out of fuel, and the May 19 ballot measures to a gas station:
California must get on a different road, change its political dynamic and perhaps its political structure, but it can do that only if it can move. And to move, voters must pass the ballot measures. There is little point in arguing over the next turn if the discussion takes place in the back seat of a rusted-out hulk.
The board also calls on the Long Beach City Council to ignore the false environmental objections and give the go-ahead to the Middle Harbor project, the port's first major construction effort since 2002:
The piers would have clean cargo-handling equipment and would allow container ships to plug in to shore-based power while docked, so they wouldn't have to keep their engines running during loading and unloading. That would cut a tremendous amount of diesel pollution, as would rules imposed on ships using the new terminals -- they would have to switch to low-sulfur diesel fuel when within 40 miles of the port, and slow down to about half their normal speed.
And the board calls for the confirmation of Indian University law professor Dawn Johnsen to head President Obama's Office of Legal Counsel. Credit: Jonathan Twingley For The Times
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